152 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



and the thirteenth segment, which has the 

 place of the band supplied by a transverse 

 series of four roundish black spots, and no 

 orange spots : the spiracle, when present, is 

 situated immediately above the outer or lower 

 orange spot; on each side the caterpillar 

 there are three roundish black spots, forming 

 a triangle above each of the ventral claspers : 

 the ventral surface is pale, and more inclined to 

 glaucous green than the dorsal, and is adorned 

 with a medio-ventral series of oblong black 

 markings. In a state of nature the caterpillar 

 feeds not only on hog's fennel (Peucedanumpa- 

 lustre), but also on cow parsnep (Heraclium 

 sphondylium) : in gardens I have found it feed- 

 ing on rue; and in confinement it thrives on 

 the leaves of carrots, as observed by Mr. Gaze. 

 When full-fed it ascends the reeds in the 

 neighbourhood of its food-plant, and, assuming 

 a vertical or ascending position, fastens itself 

 to the reed-stalk by its anal claspers, and also 

 by a belt round its body, and then turns to a 

 CHRYSALIS of a uniform pale dull yellow-green 

 colour, the anterior extremity having four 

 lobes or protuberances ranged in a transverse 

 series, the exterior ones much larger than the 

 others ; the thorax has also three distinctly 

 pronounced prominences, one on each side, 

 the third dorsal and medium. Newman. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. The caterpillar feeds 

 during a greater part of the summer, and turns 

 to a chrysalis in the autumn, and in this state 

 remains throughout the winter; the butterfly 

 appears in the following spring, and a succes- 

 sion of specimens occur during the summer. 



LOCALITIES. Machaon is unrecorded as an 

 inhabitant of Ireland, Scotland, or the Isle of 

 Man. In England it seems to have been 

 formerly widely and plentifully distributed, 

 for independently of the single captures men- 

 tioned below, all of which may be supposed to 

 have been insects purposely liberated, we 

 have the most reliable evidence that it was 

 "common "in several parts of Dorsetshire; 

 that it "used to be taken" in Glamorganshire; 

 that it was taken " plentifully " in Hamp- 

 shire ; that it was " repeatedly found " at 

 Tottenham in Middlesex, and at Battersea- 

 fields in Surrey. Haworth says, "I know 



it breeds near Beverley in Yorkshire ;" and 

 the concurrent evidence of many entoumlogi-ts 

 proves that it was " formerly taken " in the 

 Isle of Wight. From all these counties it 

 seems to have disappeared, and it can now 

 only be sought for with any prospect of sue 

 cess in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Hunt- 

 ingdon, Norfolk, and perhaps Suffolk. 



Cambridgeshire. At p. 527 of the first 

 volume of the " Entomological Magazine" we 

 are told by Mr. Stephens that the caterpillar 

 was found in various stages of growth on the 

 29th June at Sedge-fen, and on the 4th and 

 5th July at Whittlesea-mere by Mr. W. 

 Christy ; Ely Marshall Fisher ; it was for- 

 merly plentiful in Horning and Wieken-fens 

 F. Bond; it is still common in Wick en-fen 

 Thomas Brown. 



Cumberland. One was taken at Gilsland, 

 about fifteen miles from Carlisle, but whether 

 it had been bred and escaped, or how it came 

 there, I cannot tell J. B. Hodgkinson. 



Derbyshire. Two specimens near Matlock 

 Thomas Lighton. The late Mr. John Wolley 

 afterwards explained, at p. 944 of the third 

 volnme of the " Zoologist," that he turned 

 out many hundreds of this butterfly in the 

 springs of 1843 and 1844, most of thorn at 

 Matlock. 



Dorsetshire. In plenty, formerly at Glan- 

 ville's Wootton, but none have been taken 

 since 1816; at Charminster by Mr. John 

 Garland ; at Hazlebury Common by the late 

 Mr. H. Seymour; and near Cranborne by the 

 late Rev. A. Storey J. C. Dale. 



Essex. Saffron Walden ; supposed to have 

 been brought to the neighbourhood in the 

 chrysalis state W. R. Jeffrey. 



Kent. At p. 159 of the fourth volume of 

 the " Entomologist," Mr. W. O. Hammond 

 writes thus in October, 1868: "A young 

 lady, a near neighbour of mine, this summer 

 took Machaon in a clover field. I believe the 

 chrysalis of Machaon was put down in some 

 numbers experimentally a few years back. 

 These marshes are some eight miles off. Is it 

 possible this was one 1 A single specimen 

 was taken at Norrington thirty years ago by 

 my brother." 



